Let's
start of with probably the most important thing
before you get into chi sao. If you want to
improve your chi sao significantly then make sure
you've got a solid YGKYM. All to often, I see
people jumping into chi sao, when they can't even
find there own center of balance. Thus, imagine one
of those huge red wood trees, in Return of the Jedi,
how strong would that tree be, if its roots were
decaying? Obviously, it wouldn't take that much
force to knock it over. There are several ways to
test your YGKYM stance. The first being just
sitting in your stance for about 45 minutes, if you
can last an entire 45 minutes without any aches or
pains anywhere, then you'll know you've found you
center. The 2nd way is have a partner push against
your chest slightly and see whether or not you can
actually root against the force. If you can't handle
a light push, then you aren't going to be able to
handle the oncoming force with your stance during
chi sao.

2)
Recipe for tan, bong, fok?

Tan,
bong, fok sau oh my. These are the main
ingredients when doing chi sao, thus its key to know
how to do these moves correctly, and to understand
how they are put together structurally. Now, I'm
not going to dive into detail about each one, coz
that would be an entire article on its own. But
keep in mind some simple rules. Tan sau should
be flat, do the test for yourself and see if you can
feel the difference between a flat tan and one that
isn't. Imagine a tan being a bridge between you and
an opponent, can a bridge connect 2 points being up.
Of course not! Bong sau, key thing is make sure your
elbow is higher than your wrist and make sure that
the hands/fingers continue in the direction of your
forearm. Finally fok sau, probably the most
difficult one of the 3, be aware of the point of
contact.

Why
is it important for you to know the structure of
each of these moves? Imagine them to be your TV antenna, if the
antenna is just slightly off, your
reception won't be that good. If you tan isn't in
the right position, then that will decrease your
level of sensitivity.

3)
I'm ready to fight?

Ah,
jumping ahead of ourselves once again. Before
you get into those prodigal son battles, make sure
first and foremost, that your roll is decent. While
chi sao may seem like 2 guys facing each other
working a steering wheel, it is in fact a constant
forward motion, instead of what appears to be a
circular movement. What's the difference? If
you have a circular movement and force is pushed
slightly against it, if you remove the force, your
hand will remain in the same position and continue
its circular movement. On the other hand, imagine
your hand as a spring, waiting for the pressure to
be removed. Once the pressure is no longer there,
the hand will automatically move forward. Thus, you
won't even have to think when to attack. Key note
though, is that the forward pressure doesn't need to
be initiated by you, if your structure is correct
for tan, bong, and fok, the structure along will
maintain that forward pressure. All to often
people, either have no forward motion or over
emphasize it too much.

4)
Equality for both sides

In
the beginning when doing chi sao, picture it as if
you were doing push ups against the wall. Notice in
order to keep your body square you need to push
equally on both sides of your arms. Well, when you
start doing chi sao its sorta like the same thing.
You want to be able to maintain equal energies on
both sides when your rolling. Literally, regardless
of what position you are in:

The
wrist for the most part are lined up with each other
for both arms. The importance of equal energy, well
its because of the inequalities of the forward drill
when doing chi sao, that your opponent can use that
to his advantage.

5)
Tension vs. Energy

Mommy,
what's the difference between tension and energy?
One of the most recurring problems when doing chi
sao, is differentiating between tension and energy.
When you use tension it involves muscle, which
reduces your sensitivity significantly. Thus, have
you ever rolled with someone who was really tense,
then all of a sudden just pulled your arm away from
his. You'll notice when its tension the hand just
stays there doing nothing at all. But if it was
energy, the hand automatically shoots out towards
you. That's the difference between the 2, and how you
can tell one from another.

6) Where's
my center?

I'm
sure everyone has done this before. Have someone do
a bong sau and place it perfectly into the correct
position, and then press against his bong sau. What
you'll notice is how much force that the bong sau
can take, with the guy/gal putting very little
effort in dealing with the force. Now offset that
bong by either moving it slightly left or right,
let's just say about 1% of the center line. And see
the huge difference. Notice how easily it is to collapse
his bong sau with very little pressure at
all. Well, in chi sao its key to be aware of the
centerline for everything that you do. Thus, if your
in inside gate, you need to make sure both your tan
and bong are in the proper position, if your just
slightly of, just like in the example above, your
opponent can take advantage of this.

7)
Fok sau woes

Probably
the most difficult thing in the beginning to deal
with is that of fok sau. The most difficult
thing is maintaining forward pressure upon the roll,
and the most common mistake is pressing downward
with the fok sau. Notice the Siu Lim Tao is the
blue print for the motions of all the moves, and if
you do 3 fok sau's in SLT, you'll notice that this
is the CORRECT motion that you do when chi saoing as
well. The best way to deal with the downward press,
is to adjust the elbow. Remember, that elbow leads
the motion, thus if the elbow is raised and is
almost on equal level of the wrist, the downward
pressure will occur, if you sink the elbow, this
will fix the problem.

8)
Tag your it

Have
you ever seen this happen. Your chi saoing with
someone and he gets a good hit on you. So your ego's
all bruised and your like, "bitch I'm
going to force a hit no matter what." Next
thing you know you have 2 idiots using muscle, zero
structure, and just hitting each other back and
forth. What's this called? Its called a waste of
time. In the end what your developing is bad
habits. Remember, chi sao helps you to develop so
many things, from timing, to energy, understanding
the distance, to learning how to stick. If you break
the rules of chi sao and fail to learn from it, your
wasting time. The reason you got hit, is because
your structure sucked, eat the humble pie, and work
with your partner to recreate the scenario again,
and learn how to deal with the oncoming force.

9)
More defense

Any
idiot can attack, every art has deadly moves. But
the test of your true skill is how good your defense
is. Allot of times when I practice, I literally
just allow the opponent to attack one after the
other. It truly is a test of skill to be able to
take whatever he throws at you and redirect it
constantly. Remember, attacking is a simple
skill that doesn't take that long to develop, on the
other hand defense is something that really can
impress others. Spend more time working on your
defense when chi saoing.

10)
Control

Man,
there's nothing like getting a good solid hit on
your partner, right? The fact is your partner is
your best friend, and without a partner you can
never get better in wing Chun. Thus, if you decide
your ego needs a boosting by smacking him down, what
your displaying is such a low level of wing Chun.
The fact is, every attack you do when chi
saoing should be controlled. There's nothing more
impressive, than going full speed with an attack and
stopping just inches away from your opponent. That
my friend is skill. Wing chun is all about
control, if you can control yourself, then you can
control others.